Elizabeth Bowen's most famous novel, THE DEATH OF THE HEART is a piercing story of innocence betrayed. The heroine is Portia, the product of a blithe, itinerant childhood in second-rate European hotels. Her parents dead, she is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London in the thirties. There she meets Eddie, who is handsome, brash, and charming. To Eddie, Portia is at once child and woman, and he fears her gushing love. To Portia, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a seaside resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal -- and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature.As she deftly and delicately exposes the cruelty that lurks behind the polished surfaces of conventional society, Elizabeth Bowen reveals herself as a masterful novelist -- one who combines a sense of humor with a devastating gift for divining human motivations.